Family conversations online and abroad during Covid-19: the differences between Chinese families with daughter and with son
International students at the uncertain stage between teenage and independent adulthood have been particularly vulnerable during lockdown. Many are living far from relatives, with limited social networks and lacking the experience to navigate this public health emergency. At the same time, forms of socialisation shifted.…
Congratulations to Dr Sarah Nelson
CRFR are delighted that Dr Sarah Nelson, Research Associate at CRFR, has been awarded an OBE for her longstanding work on behalf of survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Sarah has conducted research and used it to advocate for survivors over many decades.
How resilient do we want our children and young people to be?
As a social worker I was fortunate to meet a number of children and young people who I would describe as ‘resilient’. The work of Gilligan (2001) was highly influential on my practice and I considered ways in which I might foster resilience in the children I worked with, particularly those children to whom we owed corporate parenting responsibilities
In the Shadow of a Pandemic: Harare’s Street Youth Experience COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown has had unprecedented impact on all our lives. In Zimbabwe, where two-thirds of the population live in poverty (World Food Programme, 2019), lockdown has exacerbated water and food shortages and seen curfews, roundups and forced removal of young people living on the streets.…
Couples’ geography and network overlap: spatial mobility skills and conjugal quality
This research aims to study how couple satisfaction is related to the network and geography of couples in a motility approach. Family migration and physical distance with family and friends may cause strains on the relationship and can sometimes lead to union dissatisfaction and dissolution. Many studies have focused on women’s employment,
Doing friendship at a distance
Friendships are valued as a form of exchanging social support – information, resources and mutual confiding – and for the enjoyment of taking part in activities together, sharing humour and having fun. These diverse ways of ‘doing friendship’ contribute to our sense of self and belonging.…
Why we need to listen to families in fuel poverty about smart meters
Fuel poverty is a pressing issue, one likely to be magnified by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Many households will increase their energy use through spending more time at home at the same time as incomes may be reduced. Smart technology has been positioned by developers and government as potentially able to alleviate fuel poverty, yet there has…
Educating Children During and After Covid-19, Opportunity for Change?
When in January 2020 I first heard about a virus sweeping through China, I rolled into a big branded pharmacy and bought the last 2 remaining anti-viral hand-sanitiser. These types of items were already flying off the shelves. Those of us purchasing at that time would most likely be the ones preparing for a pandemic, we at best guessed the virus would be here very soon, and at
Family planning DURING COVID-19: A baby ‘bust’, not ‘boom’
The coronavirus pandemic is continuing to have a significant impact on women’s and couples’ reproductive lives. Social distancing and ‘stay at home’ measures have already seen a significant disruption to fertility treatment, maternity services and access to family planning services, leading to concerns…
Listening to young people during Covid-19 challenges common adult assumptions about their peer relationships
The experiences and perspectives of children and young people are generally missing from coverage and discussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects. This is not a unique situation, as children’s status in society positions them as a marginalised group. In this blog post, I will focus on what children and young people’s experiences of …
Birth and beyond in a pandemic: Findings from a project with mothers in the England lockdown of spring 2020
When I found myself sitting with PPE-clad nurses in a GP surgery with my 8 week old infant being vaccinated amidst pin-drop silence in an empty clinic, I knew that I would raise her, locked down, unable to meet friends, my parents unable to fly in from India to see me, unable to attend post-natal clinics, unable to catch day-time moments of sleep with our 4 year old also home now, as nurseries closed…
COVID: Outside Our Door
A pandemic is outside our door, outside the safe walls of our little home. We’re both cooped up, inside two tiny rooms, trying to maneuver our way through another period of unchartered waters. Over the years, you grew from a small boy to a young man. And in this time…
The vicious circle of familism in housing and care during Covid-19 in Greece
COVID-19 impacts all aspects of family life and inter-generational relationships, through housing and informal systems of social care in Greece. In the centre of the political discourse is home and its association with care. ‘Stay safe’ is the wish among people both in personal and work-related communication as well as…
Capturing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the family relationships of young fathers
The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting on all our lives, albeit in markedly different ways. A frequently over-looked population, especially in family research, are young fathers. Even before the crisis, young fathers (aged 25 and under) already faced a range of disadvantages and were stigmatised…
Mothers who allege abuse more likely to lose custody of their children
To work at length with childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in the UK is to become aware that mothers who voice fears of abuse by the father, after separation or divorce, often find contact with their child reduced or lost. This raises serious child protection concerns.…
Digital by default: the new normal of family life under COVID-19
Just a few weeks ago, children went to school, parents worried about their screen time at home, and the digital future was the stuff of science fiction. Under COVID-19, school has gone online, worries about screen time have gone through the roof, and life is fast becoming digital by default.…
Introducing The Centre for Transformative Change: Educational and Life Transitions (TCELT) blog
There is a growing body of activity focused on collecting and disseminating the early experiences of COVID-19 and its wide-ranging impact on communities of research, policy and practice. The Centre for Transformative Change: Educational and Life Transitions (TCELT) blog series is one such initiative.…
The social life of self-harm, in lockdown
There has been much written recently on the effects of the lock down on mental health. How do people react to being alone? How does isolation reinforce previous vulnerabilities, and give rise to the perceived need to reinvent one’s everyday life in the face of rampant anxiety? …
Locking Down or Breaking Up: Newly Cohabitating Couples in the Time of Coronavirus
The lockdown in the United Kingdom has changed relationships and dating drastically. Gone are the one night stands and the casual hook-ups, and budding relationships have either been put on hold or ramped up to warp-speed. Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer of England, gave some unexpected advice to new couples during a press briefing: move in together…
Stay-at-home measures and domestic violence amid the Covid-19 crisis
Media attention has picked up on the risk of an increase in domestic violence in conditions of lockdown under the Covid-19 emergency. It is obvious that being confined to the home with an abusive partner is likely to have dramatic affects on the everyday life of women in this situation. For obvious reasons, direct evidence of…
Call for blog posts on families and relationships under lockdown and dealing with covid 19
COVID-19 is impacting on all aspects of family life and personal relationships, as well as on our formal and informal systems of social care. How are we ‘doing’ family life and practicing intimacies during lockdown? What are the consequence on our intergenerational relations – with the youngest and oldest – and how are we protecting […]
The Children (Scotland) Bill – Justice Committee’s Recommendations Stage 1
The Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament have just issued their Stage 1 Report on the Children (Scotland) Bill. The Bill will reform family law in Scotland, and particularly promises to improve the participation rights of children within family law proceedings. While the Committee approved of this promise, it felt substantial changes and additions were needed to achieve this. We agree.
Families and relationships amidst the Covid-19 pandemic: Call for blog submissions
COVID-19 is impacting on all aspects of family life and personal relationships, as well as on our formal and informal systems of social care. How are we ‘doing’ family life and practicing intimacies during lockdown? What are the consequence on our intergenerational relations – with the youngest and oldest – and how are we protecting those most vulnerable?…
Research with young environmental activists in the UK
Like many researchers, particularly those whose focus is empirical, my data collection was stopped in its tracks in the days leading up to lock down in the UK in March 2020. Along with my research grinding to a halt, so did my ability to think beyond the basics in those days. This rotated around; how could I keep myself and family safe…
COVID and ‘BIG QUAL’
It seems appropriate to review the possibilities of secondary analysis of data that has already been gathered by face-to-face techniques, as the current pandemic closes down many such forms of research. The substitution of virtual means of data collection for face-to-face means, such as interviewing using internet telephony, is not the only possible…
‘A recipe for better child participation’
Thirty years ago, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was adopted. The UNCRC is the most ratified human rights convention.
Researching LGBT+ Families and Relationships in Africa
I have been working during 2019 as part of a new consortium project, focused on supporting LGBT+ people in five African cities within Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Mozambique.
Kindness in court: who cares?
Scotland has an enviable reputation for being a country with a compassionate heart. As a nation, we have been at the forefront of a recent upsurge in understanding of the biological science of the impact of childhood trauma on the developing brain, gaining an awareness of adverse childhood experiences.
Understanding children’s ‘accommodation’ of parental separation and divorce
The opportunity for young people to speak for themselves about their experiences of parental separation is often missing from the research literature. Their participation tends to be based on their parent(s) participation in previous studies, requires parental consent….
Adverse Childhood Experiences: a social justice perspective
In this blog I am going to look at ACEs from a social justice perspective. So, what does social justice mean to me?
Childhood sexual abuse: At the heart of problems with ACEs policy, Part 2
This is the second of a two part post in which Dr Sarah Nelson discusses childhood sexual abuse in the context of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) policy.
Childhood sexual abuse: At the heart of problems with ACEs policy, Part 1
It was the impact of childhood sexual abuse trauma which gave Professor Vincent Felitti and colleagues the first, vital clues to persistent poor health and unhealthy behaviours in adults. It was the trigger to the range of ACE studies they then conducted, and to numerous others….
ACEs – repackaging old problems in shiny new (Emperor’s) clothes
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are defined as stressful events that occur in childhood which are believed to have lifelong impacts on health, wellbeing and health-related behaviours. This blog highlights some (but not all!) limitations with ACEs as a concept and a practice.
Resilience is a process and opportunity, not something children have or don’t have
Studying resilience with children and adults exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) has taken me on a journey that has resulted in a fundamental shift in how I do research, teach and counsel clients. This has been significant in my understanding of adversity, trauma and the profound role of resilience.
ResiliencebyDesign Research Innovation Lab
In this post, we hear about the work of ResiliencebyDesign Research Innovation Lab, an interdisciplinary team of researchers committed to using applied, participatory research with young people.
A new approach to improving youth mental public health – the TRIUMPH network
One in eight children and young people experience mental health problems and the majority of these have onset before their mid-twenties. Yet, 70% of young people have not had the appropriate intervention that they need. Young people face considerable pressures as they grow up; pressures that are driven by
Bringing girls’ gender identities into children’s rights
Whilst attending the UN Day of General Discussion in Geneva, I was part of a panel discussion of adults and young people sharing the platform equally, which in itself signified much more than dialogue at the UN level; it was a milestone reflecting a substantial change on the way that children and young people can be positioned in public decision-making.
Transferring ECEC to education: does it make a difference?
Two decades ago England, Scotland and Sweden moved responsibility for all early childhood education and care services (ECEC) and school-aged childcare(SACC) into education. These reforms and their consequences were examined in a cross-national study published in 2004: A New Deal for Children? Re-Forming Education and Care in England, Scotland and Sweden
How does providing support for young families affect children’s well-being?
Many parents with young children need extra help from time to time, in the form of financial aid, childcare or emotional support. Although it is well known that support can relieve parenting stress, it is less clear whether support for parents has a measurable impact on children’s well-being. Our study of 2600 families living in Scotland found a link
What does ‘home’ mean for children whose parents have separated?
Home is a familiar yet complex idea. Its meaning extends beyond a physical dwelling to include a feeling of comfort, a sense of control over space, connections with family and other important people, and a site in which rituals and routines create feelings of belonging. A sense of home can be important in helping people build their identity, psychological wellbeing and trust in
Who matters, for better and for worse? Personal networks in an international perspective
What do we know about the conditions that favour or hamper the ways in which individuals get connected to each other in a significant way? Are personal networks influenced by life course transitions such as marriage and parenthood (or their absence)? Do they change from one country to another?
Time to abandon prevalence studies of childhood sexual abuse?
Time to abandon prevalence studies of childhood sexual abuse? by Dr Sarah Nelson ABOUT THE AUTHORS CRFR Associate Researcher, Dr Sarah Nelson summarises her presentation to the Connect 2018 conference in Cardiff, (available on request). Prevalence and disclosure issues, and official statistics, are analysed in detail in Nelson (2016), below:Tackling Child Sexual Abuse: Radical approaches […]
In a search for competence? Children’s participation in family law proceedings
I have been on a journey for the few past months, in terms of exploring the underlying reasons why we find it so challenging to involve children and young people in decisions that affect them. Involving children and young people is required by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and is frequently promoted by policy, institutional leaders and key practitioners
Children’s Participation in Decision-Making: Questioning Competence and Competencies
Children’s participation rights remain highly dependent on adults, who in one way or another, hold powerful positions such as legal guardians, administrative or political decision-makers, or front-line professionals. The attitudes of such adults towards children and childhood strongly influence whether or not the adults recognise, facilitate and support children’s participation
Prioritising Children’s Autonomy is Prioritising their Best Interests
In my recently-published book Children, Autonomy and the Courts: Beyond the Right to be Heard, I look at cases where courts decide children’s best interests (for example about parental contact) to see how much influence children themselves have on decisions